Recommended as a conditioner for babies’ hair and skin however there’s a warning on the packing that “might burn hair”. Do not recommend for oily hair or oily scalp.

To use this item in a proper way I had to apply it on my dry hair and scalp (however applying on wet hair is possible too). Usually I leave Castor Oil on my head for a couple of hours for better effect. After few hours passing by I clean my hair with everyday shampoo (It might not come out at first so you need to wash your hair at least 2 times in a row) dry and brush.

At first I was really excited with this product. I was shocked of results it supposed to give and had highly expectations about it. With a regular using my hair grown a bit more than usual but condition of my scalp got a much worse than before using. What’s more I had problems to wash off this product and brush my hair after using Castor Oil. However it gave my hair a shiny look and they were quite soft.

Consistency of this product is rich and reminds of butter or Vaseline. Coconut scent is strong and I felt it all the time on my hair even after washing the product off. Has a creamy-white color but is colorless when applied to the hair. Packaging is simple and functional.

Hollywood Beauty Castor Oil hair treatment might not fit to any hair type and what’s more it’s really hard to remove if you put too much amount of it at once. Mink oil works great on hair and scalp however this ingredient is a bit controversial because company never said how they get mink oil. Smell is quite strong and might be a bit disturbing if you are willing to keep Castor Oil on your head for a while. It gave results but not that spectacular ones however it’s worth trying.

Is dry skin bothering you? Do you want fresh skin? If you haven’t discovered it already, The Face Shop provides a really interesting range of innovative skin care lines. One thing that interests me is their line of peeling gels. Peeling gels are exfoliants, but not as we know them. I used to use the classic kernel-based scrub – I’m looking at you St Ives Fresh Skin Apricot! That’s a classic and it’s still a love of mine, but what interests me about these peeling gels is the lack of physical grains. Instead, they use natural fruit enzymes. It is meant to be gentle on skin yet while still achieving a fresh skinned result. I grabbed two bottles, because I couldn’t choose one. You need to apply the gel to a clean dry face taking care around your eyes, you don’t want enzymes in your precious eyes! Next you simply massage it into your face for a couple of minutes and then wash it off with warm water. Because they are relatively gentle, you can use them up to two times a week.

JELLY APPLE PEELING GEL

The Face Shop Peeling Gel – Jelly Apple smells like a juicy ripe apple! It’s probably not a good choice if get addicted to sweet smelling products, you could end up over exfoliating! Jelly Apple is listed as a ‘soft’ gel. It was really interesting to use because it just felt like rubbing in a lotion. But when I added water, it became a very serious gel. You do have to work hard to get it all off. Overall, my skin appeared instantly more polished. It definitely was a soft effect, and I do recommend it for anyone with problem skin. It would also be a great gift for a teen.

MILD PAPAYA PEELING GEL

In the range of gels, this one is stronger compared to Jelly Apple. It has a light papaya scent – good for those of you who dislike sugary sweet skincare. I found this one to be significantly better at removing dead skin. It was also harder to wash off than the Jelly Apple, but I found it gave me a much greater exfoliating result. I really enjoyed using this product because my skin felt fresh and glowing after just one use, but it didn’t have that typical feel after using manual exfoliation. I did it the night before an important meeting, and I really noticed how much better my lotions soaked in and also how much better my makeup went on. Overall, I LOVE the Face Shop Peeling Gel – Mild Papaya. I use it at night before applying a night cream. If you want to wake up looking fresh, this is the scrub to buy! I’m converted – when it runs out it will be straight down to repurchase!

It has a New Wand! A Review ofGreat Lash Lots of Lashes Washable In Very Black

It’s a classic. As a teenager, I chose the pink and green tube simply for the fact that it matched my limited budget. Shortly after, I lifted my mascara game. As a beauty lover it is fair to say that I have tried everything! I was in a beauty store recently, browsing absent-mindedly. I decided to look at the range of mascaras on offer. Shock; the pink and green wand has been updated and I have to be honest, the design really intrigued me. It now has a curious-looking heart-shaped wand. On a whim, I decided to put it to the test. When I got home, I was strangely excited to play with the new wand! The best thing about the wand, it its heart shape means you can get the smallest of hairs. You can also use the shape of the wand to create quite a bit of uplift.

All you need to do is just simply hold your lashes against the wand for a bit, while the mascara sets in place. This mascara definitely works its magic on well curled lashes, so if you are testing it yourself then make sure you curl them well before hand. The first time, I applied it to curled lashes, applied a few coatings, and used the wand to hold my lashes in place. The first swipe was nothing spectacular, but after a few swipes it built up some amazing lashes.

The result was, surprisingly better than anything I have used recently. My lashes were thick, defined, and they stayed curled. The effect felt similar to what I would achieve from a much higher priced mascara which is phenomenal. For me, this means I have halved the amount of money I would usually spend buying mascara. I will investigate higher priced ones in the future, but it’s fair to say this one will be my new regular one for every day wear. It was an even better experience when it came time to wash it off. I loved the fact that it comes off simply with water. I am skeptical about rubbing my eyes, and have always hated buying a separate eye makeup remover. I adore the ease that this washes off. As I mentioned, the price is a real motivator with this little beauty.

My most recent favorite was Bobbi Brown’s legendary EXTREME PARTY MASCARA, which was a splurge at $44.00 AUD. However, Great Lash Lots of Lashes Washable In Very Black is a steal at under $19.95! The original was fine, but this is a new classic; it delivers real results that are budget-friendly. And for that, I am a new fan!

Those of you who shun shampoo will know how hard it is trying to source a conditioner that doesn’t leave hair too oily, heavy, or just feeling unwashed! Luckily, some brands have picked up on this hair care trend and have designed products to be used without shampoo. If you are into or interested in co-washing, then the Avocado Co-wash from Lush is the product to try! Co-washing is the technique of washing hair without shampoo, and users normally just wash their hair with a conditioner that suits them. This method of washing means that hair isn’t stripped of its naturally protective oils.

The smell of the Lush Avocado Co-wash is divine; it lingers on your hair all throughout the day. The scent comes from its natural ingredients: cocoa butter, cupuacu butter, avocado, rosemary, lavender and nettle. The result is surprising! Like most Lush hair products I have tried, the result is only noticeable once the hair is perfectly dried. I let it air dry and then ran the brush through it, my hair was soft and shiny with minimal effort! All I did after this was apply some hair serum to the ends. I initially chose the Avocado Co-Wash because I have slightly damaged and dry hair. I have naturally curly hair, which I had straightened. It looks good and it is healthy, but chemical processing of any kind is always going to have a negative effect on your hair. If that sounds like you and you are experiencing dry or damaged hair, why not try it? If your hair is dry it could be simply because your natural oil is being stripped out by your shampoo.

The Lush Avocado Co-wash cleans in a delicate way, so your hair and scalp can obtain some sense of moisture balance. It is expensive. However, think of it as a 2 in 1 product. If you are trying to justify the purchase, all you need to do is add up how much you usually spend on shampoo AND conditioner combined. Easy! This one product replaces the two, so depending on your hair length, you might find it more cost effective. I mention hair length because long haired girls, like me, tend to use a lot more. It is expensive, but it is dreamy. It is a really nice treat and would make a very beautiful gift. Try it today, your hair will thank you!

My skin was being problematic; I don’t know why but these days my skin has no consistency. Some days it is dry, other days it is too oily. It could be just a change in seasons, but whatever the reason, it was time for me to try a new skin cream! Because of the situation with my face, I was looking for something mild. I came across the Chia Seed range promoted by The Face Shop; it interested me due to the fact that it is promoted for all skin types.

What could be better than a product that caters for everyone? I grabbed a bottle of the Chia Seed Hydrating Emulsion and off I went to test it. I’ve been using it for a couple of months now as my go to lotion for everyday hydration, I don’t use it when my skin is extremely oily or extremely dry. It is a nice middle of the road cream that doubles up well as either a night or day cream. It is very lightly scented, but it doesn’t smell traditionally perfumed. Instead, it smells a little bit like freshly cut cucumber. And how does my skin look now? My face has responded well to it in the sense that it feels much more balanced. My skin has a subtle glow. I even use it as a base under my makeup on particularly rough days, and it seems to work well, although you do have to wait much longer than you would before applying your makeup.

In general, Chia Seed Hydrating Emulsion product is designed to use after toner as part of the step system, but honestly, I just use it as a lotion. I don’t really bother with the big step by step routine – I prefer to just give my skin what it needs on any particular day. I’m eager to try the rest of the Chia Seed range! If you have problematic skin, I recommend it for you. It’s not heavy and it’s not too light. The pump bottle is great, too. If you keep the little cap handy you can pop it in your handbag and use it throughout the day, with no spills. The Face Shop is a popular Korean skincare brand with stores in Sydney, Perth and Melbourne, I highly recommend you check it out!

The latest makeup trends are all being showcased against a flawlessly bright under eye. If you want to achieve this look, you can! All you need to do is investigate correctors! Now, what is a corrector? A corrector is a product designed to work in conjunction with your concealer, and Bobbi Brown is known for making the best in the business. I decided to put that claim to the test! After you get your hands on one, what you need to do is prep your eyes. You will need a suitable eye cream or lotion. Bobbi Brown sells a Hydrating Eye Cream for this purpose (and it’s amazing!) but if that is outside of your budget then a simple one will do the job.

A cream is essential; hydration helps you avoid the dreaded dry under eye look. Once your eye area is prepped, all you need to do is simply apply the appropriate shade of corrector to your under eye area. I choose to apply it in a triangle shape, just like you see beauty gurus applying theirs in contouring videos.

Next, if you have further blemishes, you can use concealer over the top. When I apply it, I apply the corrector to hydrated skin and then I simply use a light covering of foundation over the top. I set it with a light mineral powder, because I am a ‘powder girl’, but you don’t have to do this. The brilliance of Bobbi Brown corrector is that it can work into your makeup routine to suit your needs. It is simply a great product because it works in well with anything else you use. You don’t have to match it with Bobbi Brown cosmetics either, you can just buy that one item and use it with other brands.

Bobbi Brown describes her corrector as ‘something to use on days when you look extra tired’, I describe it as something you can use every day to keep your under eye on point! A bright eye area helps your mascara and eye makeup to stand out even more, and the prep it requires means the rest of your makeup will glide over it with ease. It provides such a boost of light in the area. The most incredible thing about this corrector is that it comes in a whopping 21 shades, so anyone can find a colour to match. It is quite expensive, so I recommend getting personally matched by one of their friendly makeup artists. I love it because I can’t do anything about my dark circles, but with this I can hide them. All it takes is a few minutes and I look instantly fresher.

Not many cosmetics actually deliver that result, but this little beauty does. And that is why Bobbi Brown Corrector is consistently rated as a 5 star product. I agree, it’s a staple. Try it today and kiss your dark circles goodbye!

I’ve bought quite a number of Catrice products, but they mostly fall under the category of eyeliners and lip products. Catrice is a drugstore brand, but most of it’s products are made in Poland and Italy, so I was quite attracted to the brand. It’s products have pretty much been fantastic from what I’ve experienced, so I would recommend this brand for anyone looking for fantastic, cheap makeup.

The product I decided to try was the Multi-Colour Compact Powder for Lighter Skin. I figured that this could be used as more of a setting powder unless you’re looking for a lighter coverage. The five shades mixed in the compact is meant to even out the complexion and give it a softer, natural finish. I tested out this product in two instances, one as a setting and mattifying powder and another as a light powder coverage.

When I used it as a finishing powder on top of my other makeup, it gave my face a kind of pinkish glow. I didn’t really appreciate this because it made the coloring of my face seem a little off on top of my foundation. This was one of the greatest put offs for me, but it wasn’t too obvious. It worked it’s mattifying purpose well and I was quite pleased to note that it didn’t look cakey on top of my foundation at all.

Since it gave my skin too much of a pink note, I had higher hopes for it as a bare base. This proved true as it gave my skin a natural glow that made it seem really healthy, and the best part was that it looked like I was wearing no makeup at all! It provided a light coverage, but it was really quite sufficient to cover some of my dark acne marks. I think the five different shades used in the powder aided in this as many other light coverage products have not been able to cover as much.

I’m genuinely surprised and pleased by this product, especially with it’s multi-functions and low price. It’s honestly such a steal and is one of the better compact powders that I’ve tried. I’ve never actually trusted compact powders with various colours which boast a natural finish, but Catrice’s Multi-Colour Compact Powder for Lighter Skin has got me hooked! This product gets a 4/5 thanks to it being a fantastic deal.

I’ve always loved M.A.C’s lipsticks so I decided to get their powder eyeshadows when I saw it on sale. I grabbed a couple of them, one of them being “Humid” a sage-like green with a little shimmer. This was my favourite colour of the lot that I grabbed and was very unique.

As with all M.A.C products, this eyeshadow was extremely pigmented with a light swipe. I tried out the application of this product using both a flat eyeshadow brush as well as my finger.

The application with the brush involved light packing of the eyeshadow onto the lid. This gave it a lovely deep shade and it kept in place with no fallout of product, a problem I usually face with packing on other eyeshadows. When I blended out the product with my Naked palette’s shade “Creep”, it took a little bit of effort to get it perfectly blended. Nevertheless, I was quite thrilled with the outcome, a soft green smoky eye that seemed on the bold side without being overbearing.

For my other lid, I used my finger for application. Firstly, I did a preliminary sweep across my eyelids with the product, which gave some colour, but not quite a lot. Most of the product was still left on my finger. I swiped the product about twice more before beginning to pack it in. This is a method I usually use when I use my fingers to apply eyeshadow and it gives a finish similar to one with a brush, albeit with less precision. This product was no different but there was a little bit of fallout of the product onto my cheeks. I tried to blend it with my fingers, but that was never my strongest suit so I gave up and used my brush instead. Blending with fingers gave it a softer look around the edges but the middle was a little too heavy for my liking.

Overall, I really liked M.A.C’s “Humid” eyeshadow, and given my experience with this eyeshadow, it’s something I would definitely consider purchasing again. The price of SGD$25 is very reasonable for the quality and brand name of M.A.C and the product is really so good to the point that I would gladly fork over more. I foresee this product lasting quite a long time due to the pigmented nature of it, so I say, look at it as more of an investment than a purchase. This product gets a 4.5/5 and I would definitely recommend getting it!

I’ve always been very sceptical of house brands due to them usually being of a lower quality. However, after my friend tried out the Sephora bronzer on me, I was converted. So I went to the store and bought a Sephora Long Lasting Liquid Eyeliner with the High Precision Brush in black.

I had an event to attend that night so I decided to go in with a heavier handed winged eyeliner. I’ve always been able to do this in 10 minutes with liquid eyeliner so I only spared myself 15 minutes to do this step.

It was horrible. First of all, the formula wasn’t very pigmented and I had to go over the short line again to give it a darker shade to get it a little closer to black. Finally, when I reached the wing’s tip, the liner dripped. The product was too watery, which probably accounted for the eyeliner lacking pigment.

As I was rushing and the dripping wing did not help any matters of time, I got a cotton bud to wipe off the drip and perfect it. As I tried to do that, the liner smudged everywhere leaving the upper half of my eye to look like a panda’s eye. As I only had 5 minutes left, I blended in a darker eyeshadow to make it look more like a smoky eye to disguise the horrific eyeliner.

I have to admit though; the staying power of the product was quite decent if it wasn’t touched. However, there were a few times where my eyes got a little bit itchy so I had to lightly kind of poke it so as to not mess up the liner too much. This resulted in some of the product coming out, which I wasn’t too pleased about.

Sephora’s Long Lasting Liquid Eyeliner is definitely not the best product I’ve ever tried, but I can’t say that it’s the worst. For it’s price of SGD$19 (USD$12), it’s not that expensive so I can’t say I’m very surprised about it’s quality. The consistency was the one thing that really put me off the product, but it’s brush was quite fine and had a good texture and the potential to produce a sharp wing, especially with it’s promise of it being a High Precision Brush. It’s not waterproof however, so I wouldn’t recommend wearing this product to something hot or sad. Overall, this product gets a 3/5, with its only redeeming qualities being it’s price and relatively good staying power in dry situations.

Make Up For Ever’s “Mat Velvet” Foundation promises 6-7 hours of mattified wonders, so I was very excited to try this out because I generally have oily skin.

I decided to try this without a primer in order to get the full effect of the product. I had a full day of events lined up for me, most of which was spent in the park, so I knew there was bound to be some sweating which would test one of the biggest things I always look for in a foundation, the durability against my body’s elements.

I applied the foundation with my Real Techniques Expert Face Brush which is the brush I usually use for liquid foundations. I was glad to see that this applied easily and provided a medium coverage without looking too cakey. As promised, it left my face completely matte, even without the use of primer.

3 hours later, after getting lost on a very hot day, I started to sweat a little. Dabbing lightly at my face with a tissue did not remove any foundation that I could see and I was pleasantly surprised. However, my T-zone started to get a little oily especially around my nose, which is where most of the oil accumulates. A quick blot got rid of that so I was still quite impressed.

6 hours after I applied the foundation, I looked in the mirror again and my T-zone was oily again, but it was still only a little amount. My cheeks and forehead had also accumulated a little bit of oil, but it didn’t give it a greasy look but rather a light shine that made it seem like it was glowing.

Overall, I was quite pleased with the quality of the Mat Velvet Foundation by Make Up Forever as it stayed on for a really long time without any primer and performed relatively well especially under heat (literally and metaphorically). When I was putting on other products on top of the foundation, it didn’t budge as well which is a common problem I’ve faced with some other liquid foundations. The biggest problem I faced was the price tag of SGD$72 which is ridiculously high as this is only a mid-range product. I’ve heard in the US it’s about USD$45, so if you do get your hands on it there, it might not be too horrendous a deal. Overall, this product gets a whopping 4/5.